NEW DELHI: The bar for entering IITs has steadily risen, with JEE (Main) cut-off for making it to JEE (Advanced) for general category climbing to a record 93.4 percentile in 2026, up from 89.7 in 2019, reflecting steeper competition and a sharp post-pandemic surge in high scorers.Cut-offs across all other categories – EWS, OBC-NCL (non-creamy layer), SC and ST – as well have risen sharply over the past few years to a record high this year, with no category showing a reversal in the latest cycle.Eight-year data from National Testing Agency (NTA) released between 2019 and 2026 show that while the general cut-off stood at 89.7 percentile in 2019, it remained largely in 88-91 range till 2023 before witnessing a steep jump to 93.1 in 2025 and further this year.
The EWS cut-off has increased from 78.2 in 2019 to over 82 in 2026, while OBC-NCL has moved from 74.3 to around 80.9. For SC candidates, the threshold has climbed from 54 to nearly 64, and for ST candidates from 44.3 to about 52.
In percentage terms, this translates into increases of roughly 4-10 percentile points across categories over the period.The pandemic years had seen a brief dip. In 2021, general cut-off fell to 87.8, before rising to 88.4 percentile in 2022, amid disruptions and multiple exam attempts.
However, the cut-off has risen by nearly five percentile points in three years since then. This trend coincides with a surge in number of candidates from about 11-12 lakh in 2019-20 to over 15 lakh in 2025-26.The increase in number of candidates has outpaced expansion in available seats during the same period.There is a quiet shift underway in ambitions of India’s engineering aspirants, and IIT Hyderabad director B S Murthy finds it encouraging. “Everyone wants a seat in an IIT now,” he said, noting that this has pushed students to work harder and aim higher.” Yet, Murthy voiced a measured concern: the need to draw more students to core engineering disciplines.
